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20000826 LastThrow
The Last Throw Role Call Prince Donner 6th/5rd Human Fighter/Wizard John Speck Auric 8th Human Druid Keith Farrar Travian 8th Human Paladin Robert Giedt Kill'Dar 9th/3rd Elf Wizard/Fighter Rick DiRicco Ox (NPC) 3rd Human Fighter Dave Grackle 6th/5th Half-Elf Fighter/Rogue Mark Whisler Colin 12th Human Fighter Jim Yonemura (Full Risk, Full Reward) Fingle 3rd/7th Gnome Cleric/Wizard Richard Jacobsen (Full Risk, Full Reward) Kieran 7th/4th Half-Elf Cleric/Wizard Ray Chiang (Full Risk, Full Reward) Prelude Guest Scribe: Mark Whisler Now that the 3E rules are out, the character changes have been finalized. Session Summary Auric of Home introduces himself, a druid of the plateau. He arrived with young Philip, teleported in with Donner. He is someone we've heard of (apparently), but never actually met. Young Philip has eight berserkers with him. Young Philip has apparently been leading monster hunting expeditions on the Plateau, and he and some of his friends are in the market for bigger game. The Black Lions have cleared a kill-zone by taking down buildings near the gatehouse. They have cleared an area of the inner city that includes roughly 1/3rd of it, and torn down burned out buildings to create a clear space roughly 60 yards (600?) across, facing a breastworks. The kill zone has been seeded with Continual Flame stones. There don't seem to be many houses in the inner city with people in them, apparently the denizens of the inner city moved out when the orcs moved in. Most of the houses have been turned into barracks for orogs, the rest are empty or have people in them lying low. The Black Lions are in the city, along with the Heavy Infantry, and Cavalry, while the archers and small groups of Heavy Infantry are stationed on the wall. Travian in unconscious (stable at -11), Colin is gravely wounded but conscious (4 hp), Grackle has 55 hp, Kill'Dar has 82. When Donner heads for Hagal's HQ. when he, Grackle and Kill'Dar arrive with Auric and Philip's men. Donner requests Auric's help in healing Travian. Travian regains consciousness after being ministered to. Travian realizes that the sword he was wielding (+1/+3 vs evil) got left behind when he went down. When Auric is finished, both Colin and Travian are feeling much better. (Colin 11hp, Travian 18hp). The party is told that Hagal is out patrolling the lines, and they go hunt him down. It quickly becomes apparent that he is combining a morale visit with his inspection. The Black Lions are divided into groups of 10 or so bolstering the Heavy Infantry and Cavalry along the lines. Hagal: Well met. How did it go? Donner: We failed to kill the high priest Hagal: That will count against us. Donner: What can we do? Hagal: Does your flying device still work? Donner: It has some time left on it, but it has been heavily used today, I'm uncertain how much time we have left. We'll be waiting in the gatehouse to respond to trouble. Hagal: I have set a trap in case they try to attack the mage's barracks. If you hear trumpets making this signal (describes the "get here now signal") then that is where you are most needed. We have a system of signal horns for this sort of situation. Colin turns to Ox and says " I am unable to guard the Prince the way I have been, so I am charging you to guard him?" (In the distance the party hears Prince Donner howling "Nooooo!") Colin is assigned to the barracks where the spellcasters are resting to provide a surprise should the enemy try assassination. Kieran and Fingle are resting there. Young Philip comes to Donner and says "Where do you want us? Where is the enemy?" A brief discussion ensues regarding where Donner reluctantly decides that Philip and his berserkers should take a position close to the front lines. The party takes their position in the gatehouse, and settles down to wait for the night's events. It gets really quiet. After an hour passes, Donner and Kill'Dar start to rest. After about 4+ hours, they figure that the dark of the moon has come and gone. They hear booming of drums coming from outside the walls, in the outer city. This is apparently some form of signaling device. They build in intensity, and the party begins to hear chanting. Grackle starts singing an Aquarnan tavern song, "99 orcs are climbing the wall." Amongst muted laughter, some of the troops chime in, but the desired effect is not achieved, that is, to help morale with a countersong. Grackle is no bard. They party hears answering drums from the inner city over the sounds of singing. The troops show signs of realizing that there is no way out, and we've been fighting all day. Suddenly, the drums and chanting go silent. A runner comes from Hagal with a message for Donner. Grackle intercepts the message. "One of my seers has received notification that the watcher at the secret passage has been slain." Grackle decides not to disturb Donner. An hour past moonset, close to midnight, drums begin from the inner city again, followed by drums from the outer city, and chanting begins in both. After 5 minutes another runner delivers a message: "Watchers at the inner keep reports the gates have opened and troops are marching out. Some of the troops marching out are not alive." Grackle maintains the watch without rousing Donner, knowing that his orders from Donner are not to disturb him unless its something dire and that there are horn signals for emergencies. Outside the walls, the party sees what appears to be a river of motion headed our way. Grackle sends word of this to Hagal. We can also see something of a similar movement coming from the inner keep. A section of the Continual Flame area of the kill zone goes out, then a few seconds later, another section farther in goes out. Outside the wall a wave of orcs heads for the gatehouse. Horns go off inside and outside the wall. We see a mass of troops heading through the darkened part of the killing zone (KZ). Horns are calling from along the length of the wall as well as the inside. The central column crosses the KZ about the time that Donner joins us, in armor and ready for battle. In the central column, there are orogs, 4 war trolls and a giant. The giant is throwing hunks of rubble over the Black Lions' breastworks. The orogs are shooting burning arrows into the city beyond the breastworks as well. The wall is being attacked from numerous places, the orcs outside are trying to put ladders up but not having much success. Our troops seem to be holding on the wall. On the ground, the giant has made a big hole in the earthworks and orogs are penetrating. Over the central column a dark column appears, 100' high and 100' wide and 600' + long. Kill'Dar sees what appears to be some huge winged thing that was enveloped in darkness just as it swept into the light, 25' wingspan perhaps. He is uncertain as to whether it was demonic, draconic, the wings seemed to be larger than the body of the creature. The party hears the "Come here now" horns from the right wall, and then from the center area where the black figure appeared. Donner assigns Travian and Ox to run along the wall, Ox takes off while Travian argues for a round, then finally agrees. Donner, Grackle, Kill'Dar, and Auric mount the carpet with Donner flying, heading along the wall towards the area of the wall. Tactical Note: Always have someone with lots of HP fly the carpet. Five rounds or so later, we arrive at a section of the wall that has become dark, the darkness extends for perhaps 200'. Some of us can tell that there appear to be Orcish troops pouring over the wall and there are battles at either end of the wall darkened area. The orcs' area of control is expanding. Donner flies back along the wall, and tells Travian to go seal the breach. Then he turns the carpet towards the column of darkness having decided that it is the greater threat. The darkness has stopped advancing, but inside the darkness is a huge noise of a massive amount of troops. Donner flies the carpet to the leading point of the darkness, where the fighting sounds the worst. Kill'Dar uses the Ring of the Silverveils to cast Detect Evil. At first it seems that there is a lot of evil, but nothing overwhelming. The party flies closer to the darkness and around to one side, Donner tries to put a continual flame into the darkness with no effect, Kill'Dar uses the Ring of the Silverveils to dispel a 100' sq section of the darkness. Below, a bunch of orogs suddenly look up noticing the aura of the Ring of the Silverveils on Kill'Dar and that they are no longer covered in darkness. Round 1 (10:00): Everyone on the carpet scans the mass below, Grackle sees that it appears there are invisible creatures in the mass of orogs and decides to wait, Auric the same. The orogs shoot at the carpet and everyone is hit once. The orogs are all repeating some word but Grackle can't relate it to anyone. Kill'Dar looks for someone in charge to shoot but can't see anyone. Donner moves the carpet farther towards the front of the darkness. Round 2 (10:22): Grackle and Auric wait for something to happen. Out of the darkness looms a demonic form similar to the one they faced earlier in the day (See Don't Let Sleeping Dogs Lie and Casualties of War). Kill'Dar's Protection from Evil flares and the demon attacks Donner. He is hit three times for 12 hp. Kill'Dar swings at the demon with a touch attack but misses the chance to overcome the creature's spell resistance. Donner swings the carpet around so Grackle can swing at the demon. Grackle takes a mighty swing and does max damage. Or he would have had he gotten past the creature's tough hide (damage reduction +2/-15?) Meanwhile, Ox and Travian reach the place where the breakthrough is happening. As Travian has run along, he has raised morale among 80% of the soldiers, the other 20% are cynical. Round 3 (11:09): Auric waits to switch places with Kill'Dar, the demon savages Grackle, then Auric and Kill'Dar switch places, but Kill'Dar can't get through the demon's spell resistance. Auric casts a cure on Grackle. Donner flies the carpet backwards from the demon and holds up Fulchar for Grackle. Round 4 (11:33): The demon shrieks (Forttude save), and Grackle and Auric are stunned. It's flying just out of reach. An arbalest bolt comes out of the darkness and hits Auric. On the wall, the half-orc assassin (HOA) takes a shot at Travian, but bounces his bolt from the armor. Travian feels something cloud his mind but shakes it off then plows through the first few orcs. Ox pushes up to Travian, who won't let him by. Kill'Dar casts Color Spray, but it has no effect. Donner flies down to avoid collateral fire by the orogs and giants. Round 5 (11:54): The HOA shoots at Travian again, with no result. Travian sees a wizard casting a spell from out over the outer city as a spell hits him, but he saves. The demon casts mirror image, gets 6 images and flies back over the orogs. Travian pushes farther into the orcs on the wall. Auric comes to his senses. Grackle comes out of it and takes the sharpened +3 longsword from Kill'Dar and replaces it with the Sword of Wounding. Kill'Dar fires arrows at the demon's images and hits three of its images reducing the number of demon images to four. Round 6 (12:15): Orcs try to swarm Travian, but can't get through to him. The enemy wizard launches a fireball which bursts in the air behind the wall. Weakened from the day's combat, Travian falls, while Ox remains standing. Auric tries dispelling the mirror images but doesn't overcome the spell level. The demon restores the darkness over the orogs. Ox ploughs into the remaining orcs (bull rush) and starts hurling orcs from the wall. Donner recovers Fulchar from Grackle. Grackle draws a handaxe. Kill'Dar takes no action. Round 7 (12:33): Auric heals Grackle back to full, orcs and the HOA shoot at Ox, but miss. The enemy wizard casts at Ox, but he saves. Ox bull rushes the last orc between him and the HOA, and pushes the orc into the HOA. Donner flies the carpet over to the darkness and asks Fulchar to flame on. Donner: Hey Fulchar do you wanna burn something? Fulchar: You mean like this carpet? Party: Grackle readies to strike the demon, and Kill'Dar dispels the darkness. Round 8 (12:44): Auric readies to swing at the demon. The demon casts a spell and says &quotThe elf's gone mad and must be subdued. Do it immediately." Grackle fails his save and looks at Kill'Dar. On the wall the HOA slides down a ladder, while orcs fill in behind him, preventing Ox from attacking. Arrows rain towards the carpet, but only Auric gets hit. From the carpet, they can see Hagal's squad pushing into the orogs, and they can also see the berserkers with Philip, who appear to be down two guys. A trooper stabilizes Travian and they begin to pass him back through the troops. Grackle pushes Kill'Dar off the carpet. Kill'Dar falls the short distance to the ground into a mass of surprised orogs, taking minimal damage. Donner flies the carpet down to where Kill'Dar is standing and Kill'Dar dispels the spell effect and falls onto the carpet. The group is at ground level surrounded by orogs. Round 9 (1:06): Auric readies for the demon. The orogs swarm the carpet and Donner is mauled, Grackle is hit once. Donner is looking hurt. The demon repeats its spell from last time but no one buys it. Ox holds his own. Donner swoops under the demon and Grackle swings, dispelling one image. Kill'Dar touches the demon again, but fails to bypass its spell resistance yet again. Round 10 (1:21): Auric takes his swing and dispels an image (down to two, the demon and one image). The demon sprays the group with spores of evil. The start burrowing into any exposed skin, affecting everyone. Ox is fighting orcs one on one. Donner swings and dispels the final image. Grackle swings 3 times and hits twice doing moderate damage. Kill'Dar cures the spores in Donner with the Ring of the Silverveils. Round 11 (1:29): Auric attacks the demon but misses. The demon retaliates against Grackle and scores twice. Auric is hit with an arrow from behind and Kill'Dar gets hit once. The spores keep growing doing some damage. It becomes apparent to all that if they keep growing, the effect will impede movement and eventually smother the party. Donner swings and misses, Grackle swings and hits once. Kill'Dar touches it, the Dispel Evil finally works, and the demon is banished. Round 12 (1:40): Auric cures Donner with his final cure spell. Another hail of crossbow bolts rains past the carpet, and there are hits all around. Ox slays the orc he's against. Donner flies the carpet away from the arrow fire. The vines continue to grow in those infected. Grackle begs Kill'Dar for healing, but Kill'Dar heals himself. Perhaps he resents having "fallen" from the carpet. Round 13 (1:45): Auric does nothing, as does Grackle. Ox continues to fight on the wall, and is supported by a Black Lion strike team. Donner flies out of hazard and lands the carpet. Kill'Dar cures the poison on Auric. A cavalry unit arrives under Colin's command to disrupt the orog archers that were shooting at us. Round 14: Kill'Dar heals Grackle of the poison. The Orc High Priest never makes an appearance, Colin's cavalry charge manages to strike home and do great damage as do the Black Lions, Philip's berserkers do a great amount of damage, having lost one more of their number. Hagal and his strike force manage to take out the giants and war trolls. The Aquitanian troops hold their own really well, better than expected. The casualty ratio is something like 20:1 in the Aquitanians' favor. At one point, we have to retreat from the inner wall, but are able to retake them at dawn. Of Philip's men, two are killed, four were knocked out including Philip, but were dragged clear by their companions. As dawn breaks, the party finds themselves in control of most of the city, it appears that large quantities of orogs and the HOA, enemy wizard and Orc High Priest have escaped. Foes Fought Base Experience: